Package tours are trips or holidays which are comprised of a variety of activities meshed with each other to make one single combined excursion. Commonly they combine matters as transport, lodging and meals. A tour guide is also a common service that is offered by these companies. As an example, this hotel has included tours, lodging and other touristy aspects linked together in their Hobart hotel packages. Tours can be long or short in length and space. They might be a one-time or immediately package, or they may be a span of a month or more.
Packaged tours generally include:
- All transfers between airports/harbours/stations and resorts
- Shared tourist fees and first-class accommodation with private facilities, as stated
- Cruises
- Rental automobiles
- Entrance fees to attractions
- Insurance
- Tickets for entry to attractions or events
- Insurance
Types of Packages
The types of packages offered in the current marketplace are vast and diverse. This guarantees all customers’ needs and wants are met. They are also often advertised everywhere; on billboards, flyers, the travel company’s custom web design, and social media. This is to get as much exposure to people as possible as travelling is a universal interest. Package tours can be further broken down to particular tour types. Tours available include Special-interest tours, Adventure tours, City or Regional excursions, Group excursions and Fully Escorted excursions.
Special-interest tours are designed around a specific interest area, which could include arts, wine and food, sport, cultural or agricultural. Professional tours might include an expert or celebrity guide who relates to the theme of a tour (e.g. a gardening expert accompanying a garden tour, or a art pro accompanying an art tour).
Adventure tours are designed to permit the consumer to participate in their own area of interest for the length of the tour and also much more expertise based. They generally are physical and require a particular level of fitness, however, can sometimes be altered to meet your requirements depending on the other travellers. A few examples of the tour kind include diving, rock or mountain climbing, horse riding, skiing or biking.
City/regional tours normally last for a full day or less. They follow a predetermined itinerary and will visit areas of interest in a specific place, whether that’s historic, cultural or religious, refreshments or food are usually included. The ones that are close to the hotel vicinity are usually very short, and some hotels, such as this particular hotel based in Hobart, offers free walking tour as part of their hotel services.
Group tours also comply with a fixed and pre-arranged itinerary. These type of tour are only organised when the number of travellers fulfills the expected ratio, i.e. they require a certain number of travellers in order to go ahead or it turns into a fiscal expense rather than profitable. It’s also worth noting there are a maximum number of travellers on class tours also, as depending on the mode of transportation — a 56 seater trainer can accommodate no longer passengers and therefore the amount limitation is defined. Group tours are usually always a tour service is supplied.
Fully escorted tours are often a good idea for solo travellers and especially girls travelling alone. This type of tour offers a feeling of safety or overcomes language and cultural obstacles. Additionally, these types of tours tend to be somewhat educational, the escort providing local, historical and cultural comprehension or knowledge gives the customer a more rewarding experience and comprehension of the nation (place) visited.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Packaged Tours
From the perspective of both the travel agent and the customer, package tours supply a number of advantages, which often outweigh the pitfalls.
Advantages for the user:
Cost saving and Registration – the price of a trip when organised as a bundle is normally less as travel agencies bulk purchase their package deals and consequently sell the tours at a lower and more competitive speed. This is an instant cost saving advantage for the consumer since the discount travel bureaus receive is generally passed on to the consumer. Additionally, as the tour frequently includes all meals or trips for example, this reduces any doubt about the extra costs and allows the user to budget correctly for costs associated with their travel. By way of instance, if airport pick-ups or taxi transfers are pre-booked and paid for beforehand there’s no potentially expensive surprise if travelling to the lodging on arrival at the destination.
Duty is on the operator – that the lack of obligation on the traveller is an advantage. If something goes wrong, e.g. a trip is delayed, leading to the traveller missing a connecting flight, it is not the traveller’s responsibility to arrange a new ticket. The airline or the tour operator is usually the ones who have to carry the responsibility should things go wrong. At a certain aspect, travellers can unwind knowing if something goes wrong, someone else is there to take care of the problem. To the perspective of a business owner, this is like employing a business IT support that constantly has your back in case things do not go as planned, and we know that problems during travelling is as common as IT problems in any business.
Convenience and time-saving – this is undoubtedly the most convenient way to arranging a holiday or tour. The travel service deals with all the arrangements concerning airlines, hotels, transfers directly through the tour supplier. This saves the customer the effort and the timing of calling each company/service individually.
Social – this is often a main reason why people may elect to travel on a package tour. The chances of social interaction are greater, allowing the boosting of short or long-term friendships. People regularly select a tour that ensures they’re socialising with individuals of a similar era, for instance, young people who prefer to party may opt for an 18-30 party group excursion, some adults may choose to remain in accommodation which caters to the demands of children and will choose a family tour or a few people may opt to go on adult only excursions to avoid children completely!
Quality of service – tour operators (those that supply the travel service with the tour package) invest a great deal of time assessing the airlines, resorts, roadside operators etc, which they use to comprise the tour package. By doing so they ensure a high standard of quality and the customer can have peace of mind. Tour companies are happy to satisfy their own business requirements and thus they ensure that the most frequented areas of interest (geographical or cultural ) are contained in their tour, hence meeting the needs of the consumer.
Advantages for your traveling agent:
Agent commission – travel brokers normally receive a 10% commission on all tours they affirm. Certainly, the fiscal incentive means travelling agencies find it extremely advantageous to market tour packages and not solely flights and/ or accommodation.
Savings in time and cost — in order to get a travel agent to put together all the components of a package tour, this could take comprehensive communication with the various service providers, originally to check availability and rates and then to ship through discounts and secure reservations.
By using a tour provider, the travel agent only needs to makes one call, send one email or use a custom booking system once to validate the tour package. Clearly, this saves a great deal of time, freeing up the broker to function for different consumers, thus increasing sales and commission.
Wide variety of package tours available – this implies that the travel agent can always make suggestions on excursions that match the needs of the consumer. The large number of very distinct packages available enables people with possibly lower budgets to still enjoy tours.
Disadvantages for the consumer:
Inflexibility – when a traveller purchases a tour they commit to stick to the itinerary, flight program and lodging arrangements. Generally, they cannot change or reschedule their tour and whilst on the tour they cannot alter their strategies as they wish. By way of example, they must be at a point of pick-up at a certain time and if they are not there they delay the rest of the tour (if they are booked on a group tour that can create problems and potentially complaints from other travellers).
Furthermore, if travellers have any particular requirements, again for instance, nutritional requirements, however they are out camping in the bush immediately, the tour provider may not be in a position to satisfy their needs but substituting the food supplied. It is the responsibility of the travel agent at the time of booking to ensure all Probable problems are raised along with the traveler’s needs are addressed because of the inflexible nature of a tour package
Disadvantages for the travel agent:
Control – these agents have little or no say over the tour operator’s choice of services, restaurants, accommodation or attractions within a tour package. Because of this, they must make sure they carefully pick the suitable package which gives you a high quality of quality or is the most suitable for the particular sector. Also, the work of tour packages and the number of tour providers is vast. This makes it very difficult for many travel agents to become and remain knowledgeable of all of the available tours and so extensive time has to be spent exploring choices and choosing the best one for your customer. This is comparable to IT consulting, or just any kind of consulting, where the consultant is expected to give the best solution in a short timeframe.
The economy in time and money a travel agent saves a customer is invaluable. Contacts in the industry regarding reservations and accessibility then obtaining the very best deals to suit a person can’t be overlooked when considering traveling.
Travel agencies get a 10 per cent commission on most packaged tours; however, if the agency has a favourite product arrangement with a specific business this amount could be greater. As a commission is removed before sending the last payment on the tour operator, the agency can receive the reward because of its effort without delay.
Tour operators and operators often reserve the right to alter their itineraries for a variety of reasons like weather, strikes or the outbreak of fighting in a particular location. Any price changes which may occur prior to departure are likely to be passed to the client.